Raul Castro lays out next 13 years of Cuban power

Cuba's outgoing President Raul Castro, right, and new President Miguel Diaz-Canel raise their arms in unison at the National Assembly in Havana on Thursday. (Alexandre Meneghini/AP)

Raul Castro is stepping down as president of the island his family has long ruled, but also laid out how things will run in Cuba until 2031.

Heir apparent Miguel Diaz-Canel, 57, officially replaced the octogenarian on Thursday, though the departing president still will remain head of the powerful Communist Party until 2021.

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Castro, the brother of the country's longtime revolutionary leader who died in 2016, also explained a controlled process for future changes in a speech.

He said that he expected Diaz-Canel to serve two five-year terms as president and two five-year terms as head of the Communist Party after 2021.

Diaz-Canel has pledged to carry out a program to open up Cuba's economy to private enterprise. (YAMIL LAGE/AFP/Getty Images)

That would create another three year period where Diaz-Canel would guide his own successor, an arrangement that could last until 2031.

Though far in the future, the planned changes mark a relative flurry of activity at the top of the Cuban state, which was in charge and railed against enemies in the United States from the 1959 revolution against dictatorship until he officially resigned amid ill health in 2008.

Diaz-Canel said in his speech Thursday that he wanted to continue the country's revolution and was not going to cede to demands from the U.S. about politics on the island, where the government has suppressed freedom of speech and jailed dissidents.

Cuba has long been dominated by the Castro family including Fidel (left, in 1996). (ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP/Getty Images)

A warming of relations between Washington and Havana took place under a historic deal during the Obama administration that included reopening the U.S. Embassy in Cuba, though the progress has suffered as President Trump reinforced restrictions on Americans traveling to their neighbor.

The U.S. has long had an embargo on Cuba, though recently travelers have been allowed to purchase more goods and companies, include airlines and telecommunications, can do business there.

While the political structure is expected to remain dominated by the Communist Party, Diaz-Canel also used his speech to say that Cuba would begin a 12-year program to open up its economy and promote private enterprise.